Casinos are continually seeking ways to expose their patrons to new games and entice those patrons to play both those new games as well as existing games. When a new game is released, the game may be advertised extensively to expose it to prospective patrons. This method of introducing new games has numerous pitfalls. First, in order to play the new game, the patron must locate the game. A casino may have tens of thousands of square feet of space filled with banks of gaming machines and tables games. Thus, a patron may find it difficult to locate a specific game.
In addition, patrons generally play games they are most familiar with. The familiarity of the game supports the patron's belief that they have a better probability of winning the game. Patrons are often very reluctant to play a game they do not know how to play, believing that they will simply lose the game and their bets.
As one means to entice players to play both new and existing games, casinos often offer player reward programs. These programs offer players awards based on their play of gaming machines and table games. These awards are generally separate from the winnings awarded to a player for a winning outcome of a game. These player reward programs generally require that a player sign up for the program and then use a player tracking card. When the player signs up for the program, an account is opened for them. When the player plays a game, their game play is tracked at the game. The player's player tracking card is used to identify them, and the game play information is associated with their account. In this manner a casino may determine, for example, that a particular patron has bet a particular sum of money over time or has played particular games. The casino can then reward the player for their game play. When rewarded, the players are further enticed beyond the normal play of the games, to play the games.
However, the player reward program still does not solve the problem of getting players to play new games. For example, even players signed up with the rewards program would have to locate the new gaming machines. These players are also likely to be just as reluctant to play a new game as any other player.
In addition, while the player reward program has many advantages, those advantages are not realized if the player does not sign up for the program. Casinos continue to seek new ways to entice patrons to sign up for their rewards programs and to entice them to play games, including new games or games less frequently played.